Now Playing

Atari 2600 – Demon Attack

Sadly, only on the cover.
This is another game by Imagic who developed the good Atlantis and the amazing Cosmic Ark.
And with this installment, they are now my favorite Atari 2600 developers.Congratulations!

Demon Attack is an arcade shooter in the vein of Space Invaders or Phoenix.
Atari thought it resembles Phoenix so much that they even sued Imagic.
Everything was handled out of court and the game became Imagics bestselling title but I still feel it was a sucky move.
I mean hundred of games were blatant Space Invaders rip-offs and nobody gave a sh*t. The game probably sold a bunch of consoles in favor of Atari.

Anyway, this is how it works:
You move your spaceship on the bottom of the screen from left to right and fire at aliens demons that (kinda spastically) fly all over the place.
Of course, they fire back.
Not just a single bullet but multiple bullets or laser beams at once.
Always keep moving or the game is over really fast.
When you shoot an enemy he gets replaced by another one and I really like the way they zoom in. Feels futuristic…like it should.
If you finish a wave you move on to the next one with faster foes that will also multiply when you hit them.
You also get an extra life which I highly appreciate.

Demon Attack features various game modes like one where bullets follow the direction key you press (hard) or one where enemies follow the direction key you press (a complete clusterf*ck).
There’s also a multiplayer mode where you switch players after every shot.
Silly, but fun.

Since this a game from Imagic you can bet your a*ss that the presentation is top notch.
Colorful enemies who fluidly sway through space and explode in an even more colorful supernova.
I probably exaggerate but I really dig this style.
Sound effects are also good and I especially like the constant alarm sound that gets faster with every killed enemy.
Some might find it annoying but I think it adds some urgency that really motivated me to push forward.

Naturally, it’s not perfect.
The plain black background is a letdown after the starry Cosmic Ark and there’s not much variation after the 8th wave or so.
Didn’t bother me tho.
I quickly got sucked into the game, went into a zen-like state shortly after and lost track of time.
I really can’t ask for much more.Play it!